Chapter 33: Ruin

After fighting off a bandit-like group of people, milady and I, a weak maid, received an invitation from an old butler who claimed to be the lord’s messenger.

“What can I do for you, my lady?”

“Well since you’re here, I’ll take the invitation”

“Thank you.”

That is why I am heading to the lord’s house now.

I don’t know if the lord here is a nobleman or not, but he’s impatient. In a way, it’s refreshing to know that it’s at least a few days before we made plans with other noblemen.

”Since we are travelers, I’m sure he was in a hurry to get us there.”

“I see. I hadn’t thought of that.”

In the carriage prepared by the butler-san. Milady whispers that in my ear, and I am moved and shaken by milady’s profound deliberation. The butler, who doesn’t seem to have heard such a whispered conversation, but who guessed otherwise, lowers his head.

”I apologize for not considering your schedule as well. It’s not my intention to waste your time. There are students from the magician’s academy of the royal capital here, and my lord said he would love to have a meal with you all.”

“The students of the academy…”

I am the only person in the universe that noticed the slight twitching of milady’s cheeks. Yes, that’s right. Milady is getting better, but she is still a bit of a bad communicator.

Anyway, to meet a student of the school in such a mountain town, I hope it’s not someone who has a history with milady.

It’s a 30-minute drive from the inn by carriage. If it was Nir’s carriage that I had left at the inn, it would be less than 10 minutes away.

The lord’s mansion that I arrived at was surprisingly small and cozy. He is the lord of this town and the surrounding villages, to put it bluntly, he is the “town chief deluxe”, I guess.

“Ladies, this way please.”

“Yes, sir.”

Milady is dressed in a semi-formal dress for the dinner. As a maid, I am prepared to that extent no matter where she goes out.

”Ah, it’s Miss Kamishiro…….”

“… Miss Kamishiro and Miss Sharon?”

“Miss Ginko?”

“It’s Ginko.”

“I’m Fua. Remember…?”

“Oh yes, Miss Ginko and Miss Fua. Of course, I remember. I was in the same group with Miss Ginko once at the Academy, and Miss Fua was the one who was often with her.”

As I recall, I don’t remember them doing anything to me on Earth. I don’t remember them helping me out, but I don’t think I’m inferring anything from them at the moment.

“Well, that was you guys?”

The young lady seemed relieved that they weren’t bad aristocratic students.

“Uh, Sharon-san…sama? Huh, why are you here?”

“You don’t need sama. …although I’m sure that to some extent it can’t be helped at the Academy.”

“So can you call us by our normal name, too?”

“Yeah, I get it. Ginko, Fua. That’s it.”

The little embarrassed milady is adorable. ………………………………………………………..Thank you for making a friend. As I was unconsciously taken aback by such a miraculous scene, Miss Ginko turned to me as if she had remembered something.

” Miss Kamishiro…….as I recall, your first name was a Japanese name, wasn’t it?”

The young lady and everyone in the room look at me at that abrupt statement.

“Come to think of it, I’ve heard of that. I don’t remember you calling yourself “Fleurety” or some other bizarre name even on Earth.”

“………Eh? Isn’t Letty Letty?”

“Yes, miss. I’m Fleurety.”

Taking the hand of milady with a slightly anxious face, I kneel on the spot while saying that with an extreme smile.

In that dark world, it’s the name I was given by my employer, [Lord]. If I try to say any other name than this, I will receive a full course of chastisement from the head maid. For some reason, though, my brain can’t accept any other name from the time she gave it to me.

“Well, I understand. Letty.”

“Yes, milady.”

The two examples didn’t seem very convinced, but the young lady nodded deeply and allowed me to stand up.

“Letty, let me know if you think it’s okay for me to call you that.”

“Yes, Miss. ………….Oh?”

“You really don’t remember!?”

The Unimportant things were soon forgotten.

The atmosphere was somewhat strange, but the maids of the mansion came to call for us, and we finally dined together.

“Hello, these are beautiful ladies. I am Igor, the lord of the land. Please allow me to get to know you.”

The lord was a relatively handsome man with red hair. He seemed to be still young for a lord. When he greeted us, his gaze rested on milady’s chest for a second.

”Could you please listen to this while we eat? There is a strange lore about this land.”

Over dinner, the lord recounted the lore of this land as a topic of conversation. In this continent, until about a thousand years ago, there were many small countries that had been skirmishing with each other for hundreds of years. There were various reasons for the conflict, such as ideological differences and the desire for a richer land, but the biggest reason was the issue of “religion”.

Nowadays, the “old gods” were the guardians of this world for a long time. But when the old gods suddenly disappeared, people from all over the world worshipped their own gods and began to fight over them. In the end, the founder of the church, the state religion of Al Gray, overthrew the oracle of the goddess and spread her teachings in this land.

”There was a temple of that old god left in this land. It’s a little bit of a bad geographical location, but I hope that many people will come here as too see it as a tourist attraction.”

“…won’t the old gods be offended?”

Igor-sama scowled for a moment at Miss Fua’s asking, then laughed hilariously.

”Hahaha, what, a god that has disappeared? We have a great goddess to protect us.”

It’s a logic that the people with eight million gods and nature as a religion can’t understand.

“Actually, I have a favor to ask of you guys. It’s just a ruin there, but there might be a magical trick. So I would like you, the magicians of the Academy of Magic, to examine the ruins of the temple.”

“…………”

Milady and the others two looked at each other involuntarily at Igor-sama’s request.

”We might not be of much use…”

“Yeah…”

“Aren’t they dangerous?”

“It’s all right. I’m a soldier and once I got rid of a dangerous animal. Besides, I’ve been told that you are great magic students. I’ll pay you if you’d be so kind as to check it out while you’re sightseeing.”

“Well…”

Glancing at milady, she looks at me. It may seem a bit forced, but I will obey all of your decisions. The only thing I can do is to protect you, no matter what.

When I nodded lightly, milady was a little troubled and then nodded to her lord.

“I understand.”

“Surprisingly, the roads aren’t too rough.”

“Well, it’s a beautiful day and it’s like a picnic.”

“I think Letty made some food, so let’s have that for lunch.”

The next day, the four of us, including milady and myself, went out to investigate the ruins.

Today we are going out in Nir’s carriage, but it is a small carriage, so it is a little cramped for four of us. Well, I’m a coachman, so it doesn’t matter.

“Letty are you not tired of driving the carriage?”

“Yes, milady. That’s no problem.”

By the way, the windows of the carriage are fully open, so you can have a normal conversation.

”So that place was the temple……..”

“Oh, Ginko, you know this?”

“Actually, this world is so different from ours, that I was doing a lot of research in the library and I heard that there were ruins from the past here.”

“It’s my day off and I just wanted to see…”

“Oh, yeah, of course.”

When milady looks cheerfully convinced. Miss Fua takes out a piece of paper from her bag that looks like the material she studied and shows it to milady.

”After listening to the lord’s story, I understand a bit…. until the [Goddess] appeared a thousand years ago, there were no [skills] in this world.”

“So, the goddess or something like that gave him the “skill” that enabled the Founding King to get rid of the other tribes……..”

“It’s not as rough as I thought it would be.”

“Yeah…”

”We’re still only able to use magic at an elementary level, so I guess we’ll have to leave it up to Sharon-san…”

“Well, you just have to trust me.”

We arrived at the ruins of the temple and found that it was still in shape. I think the reason why it’s not rough is that it has a kind of “clean” feel to it, but for some reason, I don’t feel comfortable.

“Well then, would you mind if I left it to you? I look around for a reasonable place that looks like a good place to get lunch.”

“Yeah, have a good day, Letty.”

And so I left the ladies to look around the ruins.

”Well…”

Let’s go hunting for humans, shall we?

“Hey, buddy, those girls are here.”

“Oh, don’t get muddy. If those girls use magic, we’ll be caught like those three idiots.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh, they weren’t hit by magic…”

“Oh, my…”

“Shut up! Don’t make any excuses. If it weren’t for us you could have been executed. In exchange, we need to get the girls, and hand the silver-haired girl over to our lord.”

“But what’s wrong with the other three?”

“The other girls sell for more money, but…. It’s all right. You two can do whatever you want with them. I’m a nice guy!”

“‘Oh, my God, that’s great!”

“Hahaha!”

Nice shot.

For the time being, we have eradicated those who were insinuating that they were stupid. The three bandits we handed over were also there normally. This time, I think the seeds have disappeared.

After approaching these ruins, I felt eyes on me from inside the forest, but it was a “hit”. But still, the fact that the lord was in league with the bandits is quite an interesting situation.

”Don’t you think so too?”

I threw the spike club with a snap of my wrist and a figure leapt out of the shadow of the snapping tree.

”Well, you’ve noticed it well,”

“This is a strange place to meet you. Mr. Butler.”

That person was that kind old butler who was the lord’s messenger.

He still had a good-natured smile on his face as if he had a mask affixed to it. But he was taking a guarded stance and looking for an opening in me.

“The old men are in good spirits these days, just like your earlier move.”

“I thought you were only a maid as a guard, but you’re stronger than I thought.”

“You responded very well for your age.”

“Hahaha, when I was young, I was in an organization that did some assassinations and such. It’s a shame that I can’t move like I did when I was younger. Well, it’s better than these useless people.”

“There’s no excuse for our failure. We have ruined a great partnership.”

“No, no, it’s fine. It’s been helpful, but you’ve been getting cocky lately, with few top payments, so if you are going to give me some, that’s fine.”

“That’s a relief.”

“By the way. There’s still a problem.”

“Oh, yeah? What is it?”

“We have a witness, and we can’t feel safe until we get rid of her…”

The old butler’s eyes narrowed slightly and a killing intent flooded out as it leaked out in a jiffy.

Bathed in that killing intent……..

“….?”

The old butler’s complexion, which had never changed at all, turned blue as he saw the “smile” that appeared on my face.

“Huh.”

The old steward makes a retreat without hesitation. It’s quite a nice response. But is that right? You’ll have to….

“Neighhhh.”

“What, the carriage?”

While pulling the carriage at high speed, Nir-kun the horse blocks the old butler’s retreat. At the same time, the cloth usually wrapped around Nir-kun’s entire body rolled up, revealing his entire body.

”Eight…legs? How can there be a Sleipnir in this place?”

I clap my hands with a pang at the stunned old butler.

“Come on, Nir-kun. It’s time to eat.”

“It’s the only place I can feel the magic.”

“Is this a door?”

“It’s like the boss’s room…”

“How can I help you?”

“Yikes!”

I called out to milady who was examining the door-like stone wall with a serious face. Everyone jumped up and down screaming.

“Le, Letty!”

“Out of the blue!”

“I didn’t feel… anything.”

“I’m sorry about that, and I can’t find a better place to eat around here. I think it would be better to take it in the entrance area or here.”

“Oh, really? It’s the only place I’ve felt the magic here, too. Did Letty notice anything unusual about it?”

“Yeah, we didn’t find anything.”

“It wasn’t exactly a big deal. We’ll get back to the lord’s punishment later.”

”It’s a good time then, so let’s have dinner.”

Magic floods through the door as I’m about to take the food out of the basket and I instantly step forward to protect milady.

“Letty?”

“Milady. I need you to return to the entrance at once. This is-“

“…Wait. Are you from the Otherworld?”